| Amendments to the Federal District Law on Fostering Reading and Books [Reforma a la Ley de Fomento a la Lectura y el Libro del Distrito Federal]
(Gaceta Oficial del Distrito Federal, July 20, 2011; in force the following day) |
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| These amendments clarify many incorrect, ambiguous, and overly ambitious terms that were formerly in the law. In several articles the obligations of the Federal District Government were attenuated, providing that the Government not undertake to carry out, ensure or execute a given action, but only to seek to have it happen. For example it formerly said that the Government ought to ensure that the books edited in Mexico are in all the libraries in the Federal District; now the law says it will attempt to have them there. It used to say that on public passenger transport books should be available at no cost in order to encourage the reading of books over the reading of advertisements; now the law only says that reading material should be available during the trip. It used to say that libraries should have audio books and books in Braille; now it says the Government will donate these types of books to the libraries. Formerly the tax incentive for persons who made donations of books to the Federal District libraries was 5% of the property tax for every one hundred books donated; now the benefit is a little fuzzier, the potential donor first having to comply with some regulations and then having the right to receive an exemption indicated by the Federal District Tax Code. The credit facilities that were formerly to be given mandatorily by financial institutions to the book publishers are now only recommendations the Government will make to the banking institutions. |
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